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Witnesses speak of family members' plight when Serb rebels occupied Lovas

Autor: half
BELGRADE, March 25 (Hina) - Witness Janja Kovacevic, whose brother was killed in Lovas, testified on Friday in a trial against Serb paramilitaries who committed war crimes against the residents of the eastern Croatian village of Lovas when it fell in the autumn of 1991 into the hands of Serb rebels, supported by the then Yugoslav People's Army (JNA).

Addressing a Belgrade court, the witness said that her two brothers -- Bosko Bodjanac and Josip Bodjanac -- were captured.

Bosko Bodjanac died after he was beaten and stabbed as the captured Croats marched towards a mine-field, according to her testimony.

Other witnesses who took the stand earlier this week spoke about the suffering of their family members when the Serb forces occupied the village.

The trial opened on 17 April 2008 after the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor's Office indicted 14 former members of the JNA, the local Serb Territorial Defence and the Dusan Silni paramilitary unit for committing war crimes against 70 civilians in Lovas in October 1991.

The accused are Ljuban Devetak, Milan Devcic, Milan Radojcic and Zeljko Krnjajic - members of the local authorities in Lovas at the time; Miodrag Dimitrijevic, Darko Peric, Radovan Vlajkovic and Radisav Josipovic - members of the JNA; and Jovan Dimitrijevic, Sasa Stojanovic, Dragan Bacic, Zoran Kosijer, Petronije Stevanovic and Aleksandar Nikolaidis - members of the Dusan Silni unit.

According to the indictment, Devetak, with the help of members of the Serbian National Renewal party led by Mirko Jovic, formed a unit of 60 volunteers in Sid and Nova Pazova, Serbia, with intent to attack the predominantly Croat village of Lovas. The Serbian forces attacked the village in the early morning hours of October 10, 1991, shooting randomly and throwing bombs at civilians in their homes and in the streets.

The local authorities led by Devetak ordered on October 17 that all men aged 18-65 should gather outside the local agricultural cooperative, and 70 or so villagers responded to the order. That day and the next, members of the Dusan Silni unit brutally tortured about 20 civilian prisoners, and on October 18 they forced a group of some 50 villagers to walk across a minefield, as a result of which 20 civilians were killed and 12 were wounded.

(Hina) ms

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